Visual Arts Planning: Light and Dark

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Here are a selection of AccessArt posts to help you explore themes around light & dark and tonal value, from traditional chiaroscuro techniques in drawing and painting, to the exploration of light with high tech materials.

Tell us what you are planning to cover or explore this term in your school or institution and we’ll recommend resources or learning approaches which we think might feed your teaching.

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Brushing water Onto Charcoal by Laura McKendry

Show me the shadows

Exploring tonal value in drawing

Paula Briggs introduces children to seeing and exploring tonal value with charcoal and white chalk.

See Three Shapes

Seeing three shapes when developing drawing skills

Paula Briggs teaches children to use light and dark to explore three dimensional form.

Drawing by torchlight

Drawing by torchlight

Children enjoy drawing in the dark with torches in charcoal.

Charcoal Cave

Drawing by torchlight

Artist Rachel Thompson shows how to manipulate charcoal marked paper to create a cave-like space in a box.

Composite still life to candlelight

Exploring still life to candlelight

Students explore the quality of line making, composition and sketchbook approaches in candlelight.

The winter tree challenge

Creating tree sculptures and drawings

Young teenagers work on two projects simultaneously: a shared winter forest drawing in charcoal, and a sculpture challenge to make a winter tree.

drawing cloth

Drawing cloth

Adam Duncan, student at AccessArt’s Experimental Drawing Class with Sheila Ceccarelli, shows us how to draw cloth looking at ‘lights and darks’.

Expressive charcoal coal mine

Drawing flames

Artist Laura McKendry demonstrates different ways to make expressive marks using charcoal, in order to create a collage of a coal mine scene.

Drawing flames

Drawing flames

Sheila Ceccarelli leads teenagers through guided drawing exercises exploring mark making to the rhythm of a burning flame.

Drawing shells big in charcoal

Drawing large scale sea shells with charcoal

Inspired by Paula Brigg’s ‘See Three Shapes’, Sheila Ceccarelli encourages teenagers to explore tonal values drawing shells big.

drawing with glow in the dark tape

Drawing with glow in the dark paint

Artists Sara Dudman and Debbie Locke entice reluctant drawers to take the plunge and draw using glow in the dark tape and LED lights!

Painting the light and dark

Using paint to communicate tonal values

An extended project that looks at using paint to help communicate tonal values.

Painting Artist Retreats

Sellotape, water soluble graphite and brushes and went into the landscape to create wonderfully energetic sketches, in just over an hour.

Sellotape, water soluble graphite and brushes and went into the landscape to create wonderfully energetic sketches, in just over an hour.

Inspired by henry moore

Painting inspired by Henry Moore

Inspired by Henry Moore, children working with washes to explore tone.

Exploring with glow in the dark paint

Experimenting with glow in the dark paint

Artist Melissa Pierce-Murray works with teenagers with UV reactive paint and markers and glow in the dark paint.

the opposite of light

art work inspired by words and meanings

A workshop led by Melissa Pierce Murray in which teenagers consider the associations between words, meanings and objects

Glow in the dark models

A project using a mix of traditional and smart materials to construct architectural models. The children designed imagined, habitable spaces that glowed in the dark!

A project using a mix of traditional and smart materials to construct architectural models. The children designed imagined, habitable spaces that glowed in the dark!

Tape, Projectors and Wicky tape!

Collaborative drawing with visually impaired students

Accessible approaches for collaborative drawing with visually impaired students. Working together with feeling, sensing, sticking, video and light projection.

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